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For our Global Hit today, we took an unscientific survey of what people in the city of Marrakech are listening to. The World's Adeline Sire went to Morocco and took a sampling.

JEB SHARP: For our global hit today, we took an unscientific survey of what people in the city of Marrakech are listening to. The World's Adeline Sire went to Morocco and took a sampling.

ADELINE SIRE: The crowded and narrow streets of the Medina, the old city of Marrakech, vibrate with the sounds of street vendors, pedestrians, donkey and horse carriages, and swarms of smoky mopeds. But there's one little shop off Dabachi street, that makes itself heard over the chaos of the city. It's a CD store, one small corner booth really. It sells Celine Dion albums and Michael Jackson's "This is It," but that's not what plays on the store's loudspeakers.

[Gaada Nachta music plays]

SIRE: This tune is from a group called Gaada Nachta. Adnan, who helps out at the store, tells me this is a Berber group, and their music is what you'd find in the villages and mountains of Morocco.

[Gaada Nachta music plays]

SIRE: Another style that sells well here is Sha'abi music. That's North African folk music. And the Moroccan master of Sha'abi is Hamid Zahir. Zahir sings and plays the oud, the Arab lute.

[Hamid Zahir music plays]

SIRE: But if you're looking for a megastar in Morocco, your man is DJ Kayz. He's French, of Algerian descent.

[DJ Kayz music plays]

SIRE: DJ Kayz is known for his dance mixes that combine R&B, funk, ragga, hip hop and rai, a style of Algerian folk music. In fact, DJ Kayz's compilations are sometimes referred to as "urban rai", or "rai & B." And they're apparently selling like hotcakes in France and North Africa.

[DJ Kayz music plays]

SIRE: And on the streets of the Medina, this music does stand up to the city's racket. For The World, I'm Adeline Sire, Marrakech.

[DJ Kayz music plays]

SHARP: That's it for our program today. We're online at The World dot org. Our theme music was composed by Eric Goldberg. From the Nan and Bill Harris studios at WGBH in Boston, I am Jeb Sharp. Have a great weekend.